The UK, for the first time, generated more electricity using solar energy than coal in May 2016.
Europe has been grabbing the headlines for quite sometime now. But so far, it has been mostly because of its crumbling economy and unsurmountable debts that has had the European Central Bank, the European Union (EU) politicos, and even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) up in arms.
While all eyes were on whether or not the UK will exit the European Union and if Greece will pay back all its debts, Europe was quietly leading the way in generating electricity using renewable energy sources only.
Germany, Portugal, Denmark, and now United Kingdom, have all been making progress in leaps and bounds in moving towards using renewable sources of energy.
News reports had recently said Germany was paying its citizens to use the excessive energy that was generated using solar energy only. A Medium report said that from May 7 to 11 in 2015 all the electricity in Germany was generated by either solar, wind or hydropower.
In 2015, the Medium report says, a windy day led Denmark's wind turbines to create 140% of the country's electricity demand. Excess energy way exported to Germany, Norway and Sweden.
Then there's Portugal, which in May, lit the entire country for 107 hours using only electricity generated from renewable sources, including energy from wind, solar, hydro plants. In 2013, Portugal generated 70% of its electrical demand from renewable sources but then a drought curbed it until now.
Now, for the first time, the UK generated more electricity using solar energy than coal in May 2016. The country churned out 1,336 gigawatt hours of solar electricity compared to 893 GWH from coal, Carbon Brief analyts were quoted as saying in a report by digitaltrends. In May, nearly 50% of UK's power came from solar power resources.
In April 9, the report says, solar plants in the UK churned out more energy in a single day than their coal counterparts.
The only other country close to these European nations is the South American country, Chile. According to a report in Bloomberg, Chile was giving away surplus electricity produced using solar resources. For 113 days, the price of electricity in Chile fell to zero as the country due to the surplus brought about by immense investment in the sector and a lack of infrastructure to properly distribute the surplus power. In 2015, the cost of electricity fell to zero for 192 days.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "A worker installs solar panels containing photovoltaic cells")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}